A mission from the Cities Alliance (CA) Secretariat in Washington DC was in the Philippines from July 13-18, 2006 to meet with the League of Cities of the Philippines, visit some CDS cities to better understand how CDS works in the country and to explore future areas of collaboration. The CA delegation comprised William Cobbett, Programme Manager, and Rajivan Krishnaswamy, Senior Urban Finance Specialist. They were joined by Ming Zhang, Local Programme Team Leader, Christopher Pablo, CDS Task Team Leader of the World Bank Manila office, and Bebet Gozun, CDS Programme Director.

Between July 14-15, the delegation visited the cities of Bayawan, Dumaguete and Bais where they dialogued with the city executives, Mayor German P. Saraña (Bayawan), Mayor Agustin R. Perdices (Dumaguete) and Mayor Hector C. Vaillanueva (Bais) and their respective local CDS teams. The Mayors each gave an overview of their cities and shared how the CDS was able to help their cities move towards a better direction in consonance with their cities' economic growth and poverty reduction objectives. The delegation assessed the impacts of the City Development Strategies (CDS) project and visited project sites such as a resettlement area with wastewater treatment, roads, nurseries in Bayawan, a materials recovery facility, a composting site and a controlled dump in Bais, and a new public school and resettlement site in Dumaguete.

Following their field visits to these cities, the delegation had a dinner meeting with a number of CDS city mayors in Makati, including Mayor Mel Senen Sarmiento (Calbayog), Mayor Mary Jane Ortega (San Fernando, LU), Mayor Oscar Rodriguez (San Fernando, Pampanga), Mayor Amelita Navarro (Santiago), Mayor Marides Fernando (Marikina), Mayor Rey Gavina (Panabo), Mayor Benjamin Lim (Dagupan), Mayor Carlos Brucal (Calapan), Mayor Sally Lee (Sorsogon), Mayor Roger Antalan (Samal), and Arch. Tony-Kar Balde III (CPDC, Olongapo). The meeting provided with the opportunity to share the recent developments and future directions of the Alliance. They also presented their observations about pressing problem areas which the cities are facing and discussed how the CA could possibly help. The delegation also thanked the League for its active role in the CDS in the country and in the region.

Mr. Cobbett noted that the successful CDS experience in the Philippines is a good example worth replicating in other cities in the world. He added that developing countries will now have a bigger role in CA considering that 3 developing countries (Brazil, Nigeria, and South Africa) have recently become members of Alliance. The Philippines was encouraged to consider also becoming a member.

On Sunday, July 16, the delegation went on a field visit to Marikina in the morning and to Muntinlupa in the afternoon, where Mayors Marides C. Fernando andJaime Fresnedi had assembled their CDS teams to meet with them. Following a thorough briefing and an animated exchange among the delegation members, the mayor and the city teams were site visits to some priority projects (such as resettlement sites, bike ways, public markets, schools, river rehabilitation sites, city hospital). The delegation expressed their appreciation to the Mayors and their teams for working on a Sunday, for their kind hospitality and for the very fruitful mission.

Before ending their mission, the delegation reiterated their interest to continue and even strengthen the cooperation with the League to guide urbanization in the country so that the Philippine cities can more effectively play their role as engines of growth to propel the country towards sustainable development and at the same time, serve as models for other developing cities.

For more information on Philippine CDS, please visit http://www.cdsea.org and Infocity http://www.infocity.org.